


A Reylo Story: Reclaim

by sand_dollar



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Ben Solo healing, Ben speaks Shyriiwook, Coruscant Underworld (Star Wars), Crying, Darkside Rey, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Dyad (Star Wars), Grief/Mourning, Mythology References, Planet Coruscant (Star Wars), Planet Eadu (Star Wars), Planet Mustafar (Star Wars), Planet Takodana (Star Wars), Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Redeemed Ben Solo, Redemption, Rey Needs A Hug (Star Wars), Rey steals a medical frigate, Reylo - Freeform, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, The World Between Worlds (Star Wars), Vader's castle, an egg with a message, it's gonna be tough but Rey and Ben will be okay, one shared brain cell, the oracle from Mustafar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27913126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sand_dollar/pseuds/sand_dollar
Summary: A galaxy after war; while the Resistance, led by General Finn and General Poe, begins its final steps needed to take back the galaxy after the Battle of Exegol, Rey of Jakku teams up with Rose, Jannah, and Chewie on a mission to a mysterious First Order Station.As Rey continues to struggle with her journey as a Jedi, she is continuously reminded of what she lost on Exegol and the void created within herself as a result of Ben Solo’s death. With her friends left to silently worry about her, Rey’s growing contentiousness with the Resistance results in her breaking orders to fulfill a crypt call guiding her to the fallen world of Coruscant.Following the information given to her, Rey commits to a journey taking her further away from the light and into a realm not easily defined as she seeks the advice of an oracle on Mustafar. At odds with the war and its leaders, Rey can not help but reach for the hand she knows is there. Though unsure of where her new path will take her, Rey pushes forward headstrong and knowing that this new path will strain her relationships. As her friendships are put to the test, the Jedi is once again confronted with her own darkness, but to get Ben Solo back Rey must face herself.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Kudos: 4
Collections: TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics





	A Reylo Story: Reclaim

**Author's Note:**

> Hey neighbors! A few things:  
> I want to start by saying this story is gritty, angsty, and at times might even be utterly sad, but it does have a happy ending in my opinion. This fic will deal with the heavier side of Star Wars, the things that maybe we as the audience don’t see very often within the films/tv series, things like mourning. If this isn’t your thing that’s perfectly fine and I hope I see you the next time I post another fic.  
> This fic is loosely based off of Katabasis, a fic I posted a few days after seeing TROS for the first time. As the months have passed it is this story that has been bugging me the most. Katabasis was written quickly and posted as a reaction to TROS and it covered the story of how Rey got Ben back. After months of thinking about how I wanted to revisit this story I’ve finally put together an outline and have started the fic. This story is about how Rey gets Ben back and it's a long one. 
> 
> I, unfortunately, don’t read much fan fic myself, but for those of you who contribute to the things we love; thank you! 
> 
> As with my other fics I’ve taken into consideration some incredible meta and podcasts that I’d like to share. Kill the King and take the crown: Kylo Ren, Rey, and the Usurper/Holy Mother by OHTZE. I recommend reading this meta as well as any other meta by OHTZE which can be found on her Tumblr (but given recent events she may have moved it elsewhere). Since I’m on the subject of good meta reads and in general just fun people to follow I’d also like to recommend: Sistas With Sabers (I’ve heard so many great comments about this podcast, I have yet to listen to them, but as soon as I find the time it’s on!) Scavenger’s Hoard and Who Talks First (Knights of Rant) although I’m not sure if Who Talks First is still available, I think both can be found on SoundCloud, YouTube, and maybe Spotify. What The Force as well is AMAZING and for anyone who just wants to learn more about storytelling and Star Wars I highly recommend it! Star Wars Connection was a podcast I listened to a lot after TFA and if they’re still around please check them out as well. 
> 
> As far as warnings go, I’ll do my best to include them before every chapter should I feel they’re needed. Again, this fic will have Rey mourning, feeling lost, hurt, and isolated at times. It will have her encountering the darker parts of herself and if any of that sounds upsetting to you then please feel free to skip out on this one. It’s 2020, things are tough, and I completely understand.  
> If there are comments or questions I’ll do my best to get back, but there’s no guarantee. You all are incredible and talented. Keeping doing what you do!
> 
> P.s I'd hoped this fic would be out sooner, but you know...life happens.

From time to time it would happen that a haze would pass over Rey. A murky cantor of thoughts, memories, dreams, nightmares, and premonitions blurring the passing time as Rey swayed from sleep to awake. The haze was easy to ignore when she was on Jakku, but since leaving and joining the Resistance, since meeting Han, befriending Finn, fighting alongside Chewie and sharing part of her life with Leia things changed. The haze took more of a shape and whether or not Rey wanted it to, it drew her from sleep with pitching force like she was a drop of water and her nightmares an angry ocean. Brief flutters of time passed as memories mixed with hopes. Asleep, but not for much longer, Rey turned in bed on the Falcon. On purpose, or maybe not, Rey turned her attention to the most recent of her memories, that of Leia’s funeral. Rey’s first time on Naboo and it was to attend Leia’s funeral.

Extolling sunlight cradled Naboo that evening as an entire planet caught itself in visceral anguish that spread over every living thing. The crowds came in and filled Theed to the brim, took over every street, and lined every building. A line of those who’d worked closest with the princess followed behind as an empty casket was carried from one side of Theed to the other. Rey was in the precession, dressed in clean clothes that hid the many wounds of Exegol’s battle well. While still sore from a battle that happened a week ago, the Jedi ignored the pain and silenced her own thoughts. All around her she’d felt upheaving grief, disbelief, anger, but most of all a growing hope. For so many, Leia’s death brought forth a fragile truth; the war was over and if it wasn’t, it meant the galaxy lost a final pledge of fleeting hope. It was better for the masses to believe the First Order was on its way out, then understand there was more to be done.

It was at the edge of Theed when Rey felt a crackle in her chest like her heart was pounding for her attention. For the first time Rey looked away from the casket in front of her and to the crowd of weeping onlookers, a mesh of people from far away and close by and all of them standing next to each other despite their beliefs or alliances and all of them unapproachable in their sadness. The crackle turned to a cold pinpoint burying itself deeper in the Jedi’s chest, and then Rey swore she saw _him_. A full head above the person he stood behind, his unforgiving locks swept over in Theed’s wind, and those eyes watching the world go by. If Rey knew then that blinking would chase away the mirage, then she wouldn’t have blinked. She would have kept her eyes open until all of her poured out from the orbits allowing her to see.

Rey didn’t breathe from her nose. She opened her mouth and used the pressure of air filling her lungs as a way to know she was awake. This wasn’t a dream or a nightmare or a damned memory she could no longer tell was real or not. Pulling herself up, Rey hung her legs over the edge of her bed in a pitch-black cabin as her senses grasped where she was and fed that information to her brain. Theed wasn’t long ago, but Takodana is today. Hands made cold by the Falcon’s need for newer insulation, Rey pressed her palms against her forehead where her hair now hid half her face. Feeling the valleys in her skin where her cheek rested against a pillow the Jedi followed a single line with her finger as it cut across her face. Balling up her fists, Rey forced herself from bed. It was early, but not too early to meditate. In the darkness, Rey washed her face and pulled back the locks of hair that had escaped overnight. Like ticking off another day Rey reached for the world around her. Chewbacca was in his cabin, fast asleep, but would rise soon enough the moment he heard Rey walking about. Finn was already up and had been for hours as he, Lando via hologram, and Rose developed a counterstrike against a First Order stronghold on Coruscant from Maz’s mostly renovated castle. Poe returned sometime in the night from a campaign on Corellia. Caught in the middle of drying her face, Rey paused and fixated on Poe. Fast asleep in one of the tents set up outside of Maz’s castle, the man’s easy slumber signaled to Rey that his campaign had been successful.

Rey waited for it. An uplift that began in her chest and reached her eyes and mouth, but it never came. Joy for another planet freed from the First Order’s tight grip never arrived. Rey gripped the edge of the sink hard before taking the towel and tossing it to floor. Grabbing her lightsaber that hung from the cabin’s wall, Rey skipped the poncho before slipping between the canvas acting as a makeshift door for the Falcon’s open ramp. The night was green with glistening moonlight drops swathed over every plant. When Rey returned from Naboo she found the Takodana’s rainy season to be too loud as the constant chatter of rain and life did nothing to bring her rest. Rey’s first night on Takodana comprised of her never getting comfortable, of a blanket that never filled with her warmth, and darkness far too suffocating. That same night, Chewie heard Rey’s persistent turning and maneuvered the Falcon just outside of Takodana’s atmosphere. The gesture did nothing and for nights to come it was a portentous indication of Rey’s state that she could not get comfortable and could not sleep. Chewie worried, but that worry did nothing to encourage the woman to speak.

The rain from somewhere Rey could not see, but could feel within the Force drenched her within seconds of stepping outside. It did nothing to slow Rey’s steady pace for a peak overlooking one of Takodana’s lakes. On a night like this, with rain and moonlight, Rey would find the lake a mirage of white and black, a perfect mix that blinded where the sky ended and the water began. Peeling away the ferns blocking the last part of her path Rey found what she knew to already be there. Sinking herself into the Force, Rey chose her spot wisely at the base of a large tree. Sometimes Rey imagined Luke was with her, sitting not far off, and guiding her through meditation with an unreserved tone drenched in the same Force Rey knew. If he were here, things might be easier; Rey would know where the greatest need for the Resistance was, she would know the time of the next great battle and what enemy to keep her focus on.

But Luke wasn’t here, so instead Rey started from her center and wandered outward. She was on the lake feeling the rain and moonlight; she was spread over Takodana hearing every heartbeat and sleepless mind. She was beyond the planet and a part of the greater galaxy. There was joy, pain, warring, fear, relief, sleep for the first time, and food for the hungry. The galaxy surged with wants, both terrible and unselfish, and Rey tried to touch on them, fired her mind to know those needs and keep with her a resolute heart as a guide. A curved, bright line stretched from its place in the starry night, offering Rey a path across the desolate galaxy, and she took it. The path was lonely, but the more Rey fixed her attention on it, the magnitude of life around her went silent and she began to feel less alone. Warmth at her feet gave the woman reprieve from the constant tumble of cold she felt every night. A day or a decade could have passed on this path, and Rey neither cared nor could tell. Worries of the war, of the First Order and worry for Finn, Rose, Poe, Chewie, for the survivors and what might be demanded of them no longer clung to Rey.

It seemed, to Rey, there was a gravitational pull summoning all the layers of her life away from her soul and leaving her bare before the universe. As if aged a millennia, Rey came to a part on the path where she could barely recall her past, her time on Jakku, or the ensuing war, but then it was there she met a sort of horizon that swirled endlessly both dark and light, now and forever. Caught between a conversation, Rey felt she needed to speak, but had nothing to say, so she listened. She heard breathing, a doubled kind of inhale that happened only when she inspired, and exhaled only when she did. From her chest, Rey heard a crackle, an opening door that was never closed to begin with, and so that warmth she searched for every night came flooding in. Overwhelmed, Rey closed her eyes and heard her name spoken over lips she’d only touched once.

_Rey_

Rey’s eyes snapped open. The rain was gone and the lake before her calm and without disturbance. Rey blamed the hour and then her lack of sleep over the misguided meditation. She’d intended to clear her mind and let it be filled with the Force’s will, but that resulted in another bumbling walk through nothingness. That’s what the young Jedi thought of her distractions and no matter how much she meditated, no matter how much she trained, no matter what part of herself she gave to the world around her it seemed _he_ always had a way of entering her mind, _even after death_. 

“It’s not him,” Rey confessed out loud, but saying his name was taboo and a strike against her soul. A cut so deep and defining it had no choice but never to heal and remain as friable tissue, constantly bleeding. Rey limited the number of times she said Ben’s name or even thought of it, but at the darkest hour when her bed was at its coldest and the Falcon’s cabin was invisible in its lightlessness, Rey knew absconding from the name was worse than hearing it every moment of every day. As many of the woman’s lessons came from pernicious sources, so this one proved to be of a transcendent nature. Less than a day after the Battle of Exegol Rey found a place of rest on Ajan Kloss, although rest wasn’t what she was searching for. Tattered, bruised, scarred in ways that would take tincture of a krayt dragon to cure, Rey delved her mind into searching for Ben. He was a part of the Force. He was there, he had to be, and if he was there, then there would be _nothing_ keeping them from each other.

A storm is what awaited Rey within her mind.

Worse than anything she’d seen on Jakku and something that made her final fight with Kylo Ren nothing more than a couple of teens throwing a temper tantrum what now existed in Rey’s mind was a cloud. This constant haze didn’t dull Rey’s connection to the Force. To Rey’s horror, it did the opposite. Too much and everything flooded the woman while she wandered through it all without sight. Less than a day to realize her connection to the Force changed immensely and less than two days to understand Ben’s death left a void within her so devastatingly boundless the Force poured into it like water drowning Rey with sense. Rey persisted in her meditation to attain some kind of healing. She traveled to Jakku, to Chandrila, the place of Ben’s birth, and eventually to Tatooine and it had all been in an effort to heal even the smallest piece of herself. At the very least Rey felt she was no longer wandering without sight, but as for healing; Rey was closer to finding her parents alive and well than she was to healing herself.

This pain, this pain of Ben Solo, thrived in Rey. It was a mutinous act to allow the pain in, but the more Rey touched on it, the more she understood it was like air; it existed all around her, it was in her at the most basic level, and to suffocate herself from it wasn’t the answer. Rey didn’t know the answer.

Rey stayed in the Takodana forest, remained beneath the trees until the sun rose and her excuses for never returning grew fewer and fewer. Bathed in the rain, Rey’s clothes assumed a darker color that made blending in with the forest’s early morning shadows easy so that when she entered the camp few noticed. From the mud ground the X-wing pilot’s used as a landing platform, Rey could hear Rose beginning the morning briefing. Gathered around her were the few working from the base, Finn, Poe, Maz, Jannah, R2-D2, C-3PO, Chewie, BB-8, and others. 

“We have minor battles across the mid rim, but our three largest battles are over Lothal, Ryloth, and a First Order hyperlane station. Lando has the Lothal battle under control and expects power to be handed over to the locals within hours. The Ryloth battle is proving to be a challenge with a Frist Order dreadnought present. I’ve spoken to General Poe and General Finn, we’ll be sending this base’s X-wings to that battle. As for the First Order station, when we gain control of it we’ll have a major hyperlane. This is big.” Rose smiled. Already her tears from earlier were wiped away, but the thought of claiming the hyperlane meant food and supplies for many systems and that was something to by joyful over.

“General Poe will ask Rey, Jannah, Chewie, and myself to accept the mission. According to our intelligence, this base’s firepower was outsourced to other needing battles and they have few, if any, craft.”

“Why does this sound like a trap?” Jannah asked, already considering the many possibilities that awaited them.

“Because it probably is.” Rose answered. “This base appears nearly abandoned, but we’re preparing for a battle.” Rose added. The group waited a moment longer as Poe took to the center, a warning heavy on his brow and dark in his eyes.

“Just because we won the Battle of Exegol, doesn’t mean the threat is gone. Lothal and Ryloth are major battles, but I promise more are coming. The First Order, just like the Galactic Empire, has more resources and hidden cards than any of us can imagine. Be on the lookout, always.” Poe made eye contact with as many of his soldiers as possible before ending with Rey.

_Unreadable, as always these days_ , Poe thought while keeping his attention on the Jedi.

When the group disbanded, it was to the roar of X-wings and shouts of good luck and may the Force be with you, still, General Poe remained with Finn.

“What do those Jedi senses tell you?” Poe asked, his back against his personal X-wing and gaze on the ground.

“It seems the Resistance has everything under control.” Rey offered tonelessly. Half-asleep or wide awake, Rey sounded the same as she did the day before and the day before that. Finn, specifically, noticed that she rarely smiled and during those short celebrations after the Resistance managed another victory, Rey was often nowhere to be found. Finn, convinced by Chewie, let it go for days. Leia was dead, and whatever happened on Exegol was momentous enough that Rey needed time to herself; Finn respected that. Now, though, time was slipping by with Rey looking the same as she did when she arrived back on Ajan Kloss with Luke Skywalker’s X-wing; utterly dispelled. Whatever pieces Rey lost of herself, Finn had the feeling it was all tied in with Exegol. Finn didn’t keep his concerns to himself and he spoke often to Rose, Poe, and Chewie. There was something deeply troubling Rey, and it had little to do with the war. Now, Finn looked Rey over, waiting for a genuine response rather than a comment.

“You don’t have to go.” Finn offered. “If you want to stay here or if you’re pulled to do something else, then do it.” Finn watched as Rey reached for an answer.

“Pulled to do something else?” The woman whispered to herself. Was she pulled to do something else? _To be somewhere else_? Suddenly that island in the middle of nowhere space she found Luke on sounded like the best reprieve she could ever ask for, but deep-down Rey knew it would bring her no peace. 

“No, the First Order station is important. I say let’s go and get it taken care of as soon as possible.” Rey placed a hand on the lightsaber at her side, as if making a point. Chewie roared his agreement while Rose and Jannah gathered their weapons and prepared for the journey ahead.

Chewie as a co-pilot had far more pros than cons, but one con, and it was a small one considering Rey’s life spent in sweat and dirt, was the stench the Wookiee produced plentifully when he was soaked. In the cockpit, Rey and Chewie brought the Millennium Falcon into hyperspace, but even before they reached Takodana’s atmosphere, Jannah and Rose left the cockpit with their noses covered and a comment about cleaning their weapons. Rey found distraction in the cockpit, in the smell and the attention needed to operate the Falcon seamlessly even if from time to time a brush over a not so often used control filled Rey’s mind with images of Han, Luke, Leia, Lando, and even Ben. Rey did what she could to avoid these moments, but in the middle of a mission there were far greater concerns she chose to focus on. A dancing touch over a brilliant red beacon used every so often to help stabilize the Falcon during long distance travel shot Rey through with childish laughter. _Ben’s laughter_.

Caught by the joy in Ben’s laughing, Rey closed her eyes. He’d been sitting in the captain’s seat, in Han’s lap, with Chewie in the co-pilot seat and Luke right behind them. Those dark locks of his were bouncing wildly as the blue-white light of hyperspace travel glossed over his smile and knowing eyes. Han held Ben tight and leaned him forward so that he could press the control, the same control Rey just activated, and when Ben did, he looked back to find his father smiling proudly. Ben was a child and yet he knew how to operate the Falcon as if he’d been born to do it. Rey watched Luke ruffle Ben’s hair and Chewie roar in approval. Ben roared back, his Shyriiwook a bit garbled but easy enough for Chewie to understand.

Rey reached for her stomach; afraid she might become ill. A low groan from Chewie reminded the woman she wasn’t alone. Pulling herself together, Rey gave a flash of a smile to the Wookiee before leaning back in her chair to watch the galaxy go by. The Wookiee wasn’t ignorant; he wasn’t misguided or too involved with the Resistance to not understand there was good even in the most evil of people. Rey sensed this as she sensed Chewie’s love for her and depthless sadness for Han. No, Chewie didn’t know what happened on Exegol. He didn’t know about Ben or Palpatine, but he realized that pain Rey felt wasn’t the ordinary kind. Slowly, Rey looked over her shoulder looking for Jannah and Rose and when she finally heard their voices, she knew they were far enough away not to hear.

“You…” Rey began, and the next words dropped off into the void. Chocking a bit, Rey gained what she wanted to say.

“You taught him Shyriiwook?”

Chewie’s attention was on the stream of blue passing by him at a speed unimaginable. The Wookiee swore when Rey cried like she was now, with tears daring to become forever rivers across her cheeks, the salt did not smell as salt, but instead Ben. Chewie confirmed Rey’s suspicion and when enough silence had passed, he asked in a low growl what had caused the memory. No stranger to what the Force did to people, Chewie had seen the same thing happen to Ben when he was younger and as Chewie had done for Ben, he now did for Rey; once the Wookiee knew what seemingly innocuous item caused the flashbacks, he was sure to be the one to handle it next time.

“It’s fine, Chewie. He was laughing.” Rey added. The Jedi expected the conversation to end there and was surprised when Chewie asked about the memory.

“You…Han and Luke were teaching Ben…” Rey covered her mouth, bit down on her lip, and clenched her teeth. Getting to her feet, Rey waved off Chewie’s guidance with the promise she was fine before leaving the cockpit.

The First Order station balanced in empty space as a dark tower with three circular levels, each of which could hold thousands of crew members. Complete with five blue outlined hangars and dozens of red eyes as lights, the station was a monster and hard for anyone aboard the Falcon to believe as entirely empty. With practiced hands Rey steadied the Falcon on course towards the station, but with her hands close to the Falcon’s emergency evacuation command, a protocol Rose developed and installed herself, one wrong move on part of the First Order and Rey would dive the Falcon from the station’s tractor beam hopefully before they were too close to change directions. 

“If we go in through the service hangar, we have less of a chance of running into anyone.” Jannah offered and Rey nodded.

Gathered, once again, in the cockpit Rey navigated the Falcon closer to the station waiting, perhaps anticipating the stark command of a First Order officer over the com. With each meter passing and no communication taking place, a wave of calm washed through the cockpit, but always Rey was on guard. There was something off here, something terribly off. Entering the service hangar revealed a near empty area with only a medical frigate present.

“Scans say…” Rose began from behind Chewie, but her tone dropped.

“Scans say, there are no life forms on board.”

The crew exchanged looks. This wasn’t normal. A major station built specifically to police a central hyperlane and they were supposed to believe it was just abandoned?

Exiting the Falcon one by one with Rey first, the crew eyed the massive hangar, the sickly clean surfaces, the lights still bright and commanding, but not a single person to be seen. “They left behind a medical frigate.” Rey commented, thinking of all the supplies on board or maybe even a medical droid who would have some answers as to what happened here. With only the tap of timid footsteps on spotless, hyper-reflective ground Rey, Rose, Jannah, and Chewie continued their sneaking. The moments passed, they went deeper into the station, and nothing happened. No people, not even a mouse droid.

“I suppose this is a good thing. No fight needed. We just take the station.” Jannah broke the silence when they entered the main control room, only to find it like the rest of the station. With a code cylinder in hand, Jannah located the nearest port where she began the arduous process of decoding the station’s massive load of information. Passwords, data collections, information piles, all of it was copied for a later time when it could be used against the First Order. Already at the captain’s console, Rose signaled the Resistance, letting them know the station was theirs.

“I’m going to lock down the hangars as well. No one is going to surprise us while we’re here.” Rose added, but stopped herself when the station’s blueprints appeared as a hologram.

“What’s that?” Rey asked. The Jedi hadn’t seen the sudden appearance, the unasked appearance, of the blueprints, but she sensed them. At a floor to ceiling widow Rey watched all of nothingness pass by as she contemplated what it meant to just abandon such a powerful station and as quickly as she asked the question an answer appeared. “Blueprints.” Rose mused as she shuffled through the detailed maps, accounting for every room, every hangar, every secret place, and then what existed on the second floor.

“Jannah, what is this?” Rose asked, taking a step back. When Jannah turned it was to find Rose plastered in blue light and Rey growing more concerned with each passing moment.

“What’s Order R2UN?” At Rose’s question Jannah froze, eyed the map, and it didn’t take the Force to know there was something deeply wrong. Holding her breath, Jannah stepped closer to the map, taking in every single name and indicator before allowing the building fear within her to bring the next words to her mouth. “We need to get off this station as soon as possible.”

“What is it?” Rey asked and Chewie added a held back groan, he knew the moment he stepped off the Falcon there was something wrong with this place. Jannah sucked down air. Her mind flooded with images of her first assignment to a temple on an ancient planet Supreme Leader Snoke insisted be taken, despite the cost of having to kill nearly every animal and plant on the planet to make room for the First Order. “Order R2UN came directly from Snoke. It requires that any artifact of Sith or Jedi significance be handed over to the First Order immediately.” Jannah busied herself, trying to take the last bits of data she could before preparing to run back to the Falcon. 

“That doesn’t sound out of the ordinary.” Rose didn’t want to hear there was more, but there was.

“Order R2UN made it a mortal offense not to hand over these items.”

“Who would want to steal some old books?” Rose asked.

“The order wasn’t created to prevent theft, it was created to ensure follow through. If an item was found it had to be secured and handed over to a depository. If the soldier failed, it meant their life. Some of these items, these artifacts…they did things.” Jannah pulled the code cylinder from place. She’d had enough, and it was time to go. “I’ve seen a piece of rock the size of my hand carved in the shape of some old Sith Lord make an officer fly his ship into an asteroid belt, okay? These items aren’t lifeless, their full of evil, and there’s an entire floor of them above us. Fighting the First Order is one thing, but dealing with that kind of stuff is just…something else.” Jannah was already backing to the hallway. Rose glanced at Rey, trying to read what she wanted to do next. Catching her breath, Jannah placed a hand on the blaster next to her and remembered why she was there and what it meant to take back a hyperlane.

“Jannah’s right. I think it’s best you all head back to the Falcon.” Rey was prepared to offer no more instruction, but was stopped when Jannah reached out her hand and placed it on Rey’s shoulder as she walked by. “What about you?” Jannah asked, concerned. Rey couldn’t be thinking of going up there by herself with all that bad hanging around? Rey nodded once, attempted a smile, and whispered something about being back in a minute or two.

“If I’m gone too long, then wait till the others arrive and come after me.” Rey’s last words weren’t comforting.

The turbolift required access codes to stop at the second floor, codes Rey had thanks to Jannah, but the ride up proved almost too long for Rey. It was hard for Rey to believe she was the only one on the turbolift, but turning around to look behind her would only reveal the back of the turbolift and no one awaiting her. On the second floor Rey again had to enter a second set of twenty digit codes to gain access to the depository and from there it appeared the collection was held behind a single desk that looked to be manned by a crew of five or so people back when that station was under First Order control. Hopping over the desk, Rey found hall after hall of ceiling to ground shelves that required a droid to reach the uppermost parts. A surge of power rushed Rey. She gathered she was being surmised, investigated, judged, and within a moment that power became an invitation. The room with its thousands of ancient relics incited within Rey a demand for a single touch, a bit of attention, or to be altogether taken far away. Rey heard chanting at her ears, there was heat from flames so long ago at her back, the void within her roiled with anger a chasm so deep no sorrow could fill, but it all stopped when Rey paused before a worn cloth wrapping that covered what looked to be a scroll.

Rey didn’t need to see fully what lay beneath the cloth to know who had touched it. Kylo Ren’s signature within the Force, and that of Ben Solo, reached for Rey. A hand both gloved and naked, warm and cold, caressed the Force around Rey, and that heavy thrum forced the woman’s eyes closed. Rey swore she could feel the lightest touch at her cheek, a curious stroke that Rey had found heinous before, but was now…

Rey opened her eyes and reached for the scroll. Unwrapping it showed the black metallic clutch of a scroll Rey cared little of, but at the coldest edge Rey ran her fingers as memories of Kylo Ren filled her mind. Kylo Ren, unmasked and locked away in some room, held the scroll open. He read the words before him to himself, but within them he found no comfort. The scar across his face, stapled and healing, wasn’t what distracted him. Rey waited for the inevitable. A mirror within Kylo Ren held the image of Rey. There she was in the interrogation room and then in the snow wielding his grandfather’s lightsaber. Kylo Ren, having only met Rey face to face a few hours ago, was transfixed by the woman so much so that the once studious Master of the Knights of Ren was now hopelessly enspelled. While Rey’s hands began to shake, she refused to put the scroll away and later she was both thankful and ruined for having made that choice. 

When Rey looked closer at the reflection, she found another face within the silver glass of Kylo Ren’s mind. She found warm eyes watching her. A kind smile, bemused by her. An ardent hand reaching for her. 


End file.
